I’ve never tasted much difference between milk from different brands as found in major supermarkets till today. I bought a gallon at Target and it just tastes the tiniest bit weird. It’s not spoiled or bad, I know that taste. This was just, different.
Ah well I’ll use it for chocolate milk or with Crunchberries and I’ll go back to the “normal” stuff. Anyone else ever notice this? I’m not counting fresh, non pasteurized, or anything like that, just the bog standard plastic jugs of milk at your local supermarket.
As an aside, is it wrong of me to drink a tall glass of chocolate milk while I make vegan chili for the cookoff on Sunday night?
I don’t drink milk (it comes from cow boobies, for Og’s sake), but my husband does.
He prefers the Dean’s brand over the others.
He says it’s just got a better taste than the usual Prairie Farms.
Oh, my husband says that there is never a wrong time to drink chocolate milk.
I don’t know if it’s true or not, and I don’t know how many cows today graze in fields, but 40 years when I was in elementary school there were times when the flavor of the milk changed. The “cafeteria lady” used to say that it was caused by a change in the cows feed from fresh grass to silage.
Maybe the dairy that supplies you local Target is using a different feed.
Can this odd taste you mention be described as tangy? It seems like every once in a while, I’ll get a jug that just doesn’t taste right, even though it’s not spoiled. I’m wondering if the posters who mention different feed are on to something.
My favorite brand of milk is Land O’ Lakes Lactose Free whole milk. I swear it tastes SO much better than regular old pasteurized milk. Taking the lactose out seems to make that acidic taste disappear.
Note: I’ve tried other brands of Lactose Free milk that really sucked. It tasted chalky for some reason. Land O’ Lakes is the only kind I really like.
EDIT: Also, my grandmother used to tell me that this certain weed around our pastures was called “bitter weed” and is very slightly poisonous. When cows eat it, it gives the milk a sour, but harmless, flavor.
When you buy grocery store milk you’re getting the blended product of hundreds or more dairies in a given region.It would be hard to discern a taste from “switching feed”…and be aware that feed practices are changing.Silos are virtually extinct here.
Nothing against milk co-ops,but if you want to taste unique,find a smallholder.Analogous to comparing single malts to blended scotch.
My son - who like milk - doesn’t like Organic Valley milk. He’ll drink other organic milk, but if we have Organic Valley at home it becomes “You bought the milk I don’t like.”
Both my kids can tell the taste difference between organic and non-organic milk. They prefer the non-organic stuff.
We do have a smallholder in the Twin Cities that sells to the co-ops and a few grocers. I don’t notice much taste difference in their milk (it does seem to spoil faster than other organic brands), but their cream - oh, my, God.
There are differences in the quality of milk, eggs, butter, chickens, beef. Differences in many foods that are not TYPICALLY captured by the competing brands in the supermarket. Looks like you might have just come across some milk that probably resulted from the latest cost-saving, yield-increasing measure from the milk-suppliers of Target.
Try to find a local farm, or farmers market. You’ll pay more, but at least try to taste the good stuff one time. See if you can find unpasteurized milk. I’m not sure I’ve had it here, but I might have. I’ve had it in France.
“This tastes like the cow got into an onion patch.”
There is one brand of milk I hate the taste of. It’s a off taste that their processing must make happen. I think you could get a different taste from large numbers of different breeds, milk fat and the like varies. The fodder can affect the tasted of milk.
When I used to drink non-organic milk I couldn’t stand the stuff from the Meijer stores. It always had a metallic taste. Even in the organic variety some brands are kind of off putting. I like Horizon organic because it’s slightly sweet without those awful metallic undertones. Dangerosa, we don’t like Organic Valley in our household either. It’s bitter.
There are a few things that can affect flavor. Milks stays fresher longer if it’s in an opaque container (something about the light). I notice a slightly off flavor in milk after a few days that came in a see-through container.
Ultra-pasteurized milk tastes funny to me - sweeter. Lactaid milk also tastes sweeter to me. I think they replace the lactose with another sugar.
Organic milk tastes odd to me too. Different feed stock, no doubt; plus they probably have less farms to draw from so less flavor mixing.
I didn't mention organic-Organic TM if you prefer- because dairymen selling retail,with or without state approval,needn't comply with those criteria.Some of them are organic,both versions.